In English one often speaks of the Palace of Versailles. When the castle was built, Versailles was a country village, but it is now a suburb of Paris.

From 1682, when King Louis XIV moved from Paris and lived in this palace, until the royal family was forced to return to the capital in 1789, the Court of Versailles was the centre of power in the Ancien Régime. Versailles is therefore famous not only as a building, but as a symbol of absolute monarchy.